Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Rok Nardin & Garrett Weyenberg - Stranger (feat. Madalen Duke)
https://youtu.be/cHZNi1ltSAY
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Late Evening - Unknown Season : Year 0 | Month 0 : The Forgotten Altar
World: Dracoria | Rank: ERROR
Population: Error Code C.725
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"Uwaaah..." Letting out a carefree yawn, I stretched out on a bed of metallic grass, enjoying the gentle stimulation through my tight black gambeson—my thoughts calm as the warm, iron-rich breeze rolling over the top of the cliff behind me.
It was the scent of blood from a vast ocean down below—contaminated, littered with corpses the size of islands.
In the past, the scent alone would have been enough to make me vomit.. a scent so thick you could taste the grasp of death and the coming of rot.
But, I didn't even acknowledge it. After about five and a half centuries, I had actually grown accustomed to it—to hell. The longer I lived and jumped through worlds completing missions, the farther the line determining what a paradise was, sank into the abyss.
"Mhh..." Yet as I stared into the sky of saffron, watching pink and red clouds clash as if to mimic the dance of the two distant, hazy stars behind them.. I found enjoyment.
Even if it was bound to be interrupted. *Ding!-Ding!-Ding!-Di...* Hearing thousands of system pings, the sky was blotted out with panels, their vibrant blue hue slicing through the orange haze like nothing else could: 'You have killed a Level -1... Recieved...'
"Nnngh..." I groaned with a stretch. -I was wondering when the drones would find that last nest...- *fwip* -Mute kill notifications.- Waving away the panels with a casual swipe, my thought echoed through my mind like the command of a lieutenant.. yet with a responsive beep, the ringing of populating kill panels ceased, and blissful silence returned. *inhale* "Haah..."
Or so I thought.
*Thump-Splash...* *Thump-Splash...* Feeling the cliffside quake with a steady rhythm, I was dragged out of my illusory cradle, lethargically sitting up, dragging myself from the verge of sleep, I looked over my shoulder to see a distant figure—a colossal, nearly two-hundred-meter-tall lizard barreling towards me, drool streaming from its maw in enough volume to form small lakes. -One slipped through the drones, huh...-
*Vwoop* Opening my notifications panel with my arm propped on my knee, I found that the last kill from my drones was almost half an hour ago. Meaning... -This must be the last one.-
"Uwaah..." Letting out another yawn, I finally started standing up, brushing off my white and gold leggings with my skin-tight black gloves meant to be tucked into gauntlets before straightening up. -I guess I'll stretch a bit before the next mission...- Looking down at a lump around the base of my finger, a momentary flash escaped before an axe as large as me appeared, as if spontaneously materializing. *Vwoop*
It was my axe, a living weapon named Klímaka Drákou—black, single-bladed with a long staff and a pulsating purple glow, moving and flowing like a liquid yet meshing and blending like clouds with minds of their own.
It was my baby.. my only companion in the hell I had come to call home.
But just as it was a companion, it was a tool that had grown with me for centuries and become something I could consider an extension of myself.
And that was something truly frightening.
*Woom* Lifting it up with a gentle hum, I looked out at the slobbering lizard, unable to muster anything more than a yawn before activating dozens of skills in the system, and swinging.
*Shik-WOOOM* Hearing space itself warp, everything beyond the arc of my swing vanished—the ocean cavetated, the planets crust splintered, and the sky split all the way to the horizon, leaving the charging monster to collapse. *SPLAAASH*
Spilling it's organs into the water, it was split perfectly in half, its brain eviscerated with its spine.
An instantaneous death.
"Uwaah..." Letting one final yawn slip, Draco vanished, and my gaze settled on the panels populating before me:
'Excessive Planetary Damage Detected! Penalty will be...'
'All Hostile Life Exterminated... Recieved...'
*Fwip-Fwip-Fwip* Most of them I closed without a second thought.
However.. as I shifted gears and mentally prepared to jump to a new world and start the next mission, I found myself staring into a message I had never seen before:
'Critical Error Occurred. No Further Missions Available.'
'Activating Failsafe.'
-H..Huh?- The panel gently flickered, faded, and glitched as I stared at it, almost seeming like an illusion.
But as I reached up and tapped it with a subtle worry, it turned out to be very real.
*Beep* Every other panel vanished instantaneously: 'Override Enabled: User can now return to any world previously visited.'
My breath caught sharply, the words lingering, floating in the air as if weightless...
Yet at that moment, I had never felt more weighed down.
It was the end.
My heart thumped dully, uncertainty threading through every thought, yet the longer I stared, the more my stomach churned—anxiety.. a sensation I had almost forgotten.
Slowly, I reached out once more, and with a hesitant touch, the list of worlds I had traversed appeared. Tens of thousands of names stirring lost memories, each glowing.. flickering as if they'd vanish at any moment.
And at the very top, clear and unmistakable, stood one name:
Earth.
My pulse instantly quickened, stirring a blend of emotions buried beneath centuries of numbness. I was afraid to touch it... Afraid the moment I extended my hand, the illusion would break.
But in that same moment, that familiar yet distant name stirred something other than a memory...
It stirred a flicker of hope... One just bright enough for me to extend my hand...
*Tap* *Beep* Hearing the system beep as the panels disappeared, my heart twitched.
But just a moment later, another appeared...
'Teleporting to World #0 | Earth' *Vwoop*
Hearing the gate encompass me and seeing my surroundings vanish as if swallowed by the void, my mind stuttered, descending into a fog from shock that took time to settle—time I didn't know could flow inside a gate...
Having jumped through hundreds of thousands of gates in my time in the system, I had never had a single one last more than the teeniest fraction of a second.. a moment so brief it could truly be called instantaneous.. but this time, it couldn't have felt slower. -Was Earth really that far away.. or...-
*Ding-Ding* Hearing the pinging of panels I couldn't see, I raised my arm to mute it like I normally would.. but after a moment of thought my arm froze. -Maybe I...- "System," I started hesitantly. "Turn on audio-only mode." My voice was strained—my body locked in place by an unfathomable force.
But regardless, the System updated. *Beep* "Setting Changed..." The voice spoke straight into my head, seemingly ignoring the medium of my ears. "Attempting Connection to Server 141-A81-B5, colloquial name, Earth."
-Huh? Did Earth become a server world?- It was a concept I remembered, albiet only distantly—worlds with intelligent life granted special System access, acting akin to gathering hubs for System Users.
But even with that privilege, for the last two centuries, even those worlds were nothing but husks. Kingdoms that once spanned continents were left to rot, their streets filled with the decayed skeletons of families, royalty and peasants alike, all torn limb from limb and reclaimed by nature. -If Earth followed that fate...- My face darkened at the thought.
But I didn't even get that far.
*Beep* "Connection Attempt 49,999 Failed. System Versions Incompatible.
*Beep* "Attempting Connection to Main Server... Server out of reach... Reconnecting Via Closest Relay... Connected... Attempting Synchronization."
The silence that followed was excruciating. No matter how hard I tried to find it, peace never settled in my heart.
Until finally, the system rang my skull like it was a massive bell. *BEEP* "Outdated System detected. Beginning Update and Verification..."
-W..what?-
*BEEP* "SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED! Attempting Emergency REPAIR."
Wincing with every deafening beep, I could hardly keep up with the rapid cycling of messages—until...
*BEEP-BEEP* "System-Critical Error Occurred. Forcefully wiping System.
-S-SYSTEM WIPE?!- "S-SHIT! SYSTEM CANCEL!" Panic tore through me.
But the lifeless voice didn't care. "Force-Wipe Repair cannot be cancelled... System Overload detected. Reallocating System Resources." All I could do was listen in horror.
After five and a half centuries of destroying monsters the size of cities, and wiping life off entire planets, the arsenal I accumulated had become a source of twisted pride, a trophy of meaningless effort.
But now.. after everything I had done.. the System was taking it away. -AS IF!- "I DESTROYED WORLDS FOR THAT SHIT! LIKE HELL I'LL LET YOU TAKE IT AWAY!" I thrashed, forcing myself through the unfathomably crushing pressure locking me in place...
But it was futile.
*Beep* "49,729,125,437 items removed from Gear and Inventory... Proceeding to Skills and Upgrades..."
My mind simply blanked. Despite being one of the strongest being I knew to exist, I was powerless.
Or so I thought.
*Beep* "Releasing User's Reserved Mana... Restrictions Undone."
*VWOOOOOOOM* Energy instantaneously erupted from within me, so vast it filled the space between every atom in my body and the space around me like a vast ocean that extended my own perception.
From that moment, it felt as if my mind had ascended, seeing everything from the twitching of my own muscle fibers to the flow of individual molecules in the air around me—all at once.
It was so jarring it even quelled the rage ready to rip myself out of the gate.
*BEEP* "CRITICAL WARNING. Teleportation Gate Unstable. Searching for local non-obstructed space... Found."
*CRACK-VWOOOOM* The sphere instantly shattered as if bursting from pressure.
But in the same instant, cool, humid air kissed my face, and a ray of warm light graced my eyes. *Wooosh* It was a cool, steady breeze that seemed to blow away the void of the gate like it was made of nothing more than idle thoughts.
And before I knew it, I found myself looking out from atop a mountain—looking over an endless green forest with the chirp of birds, rustle of leaves, and scent of oak overloading my mind.
Everything was heightened more than it ever had before... I could count feathers on birds kilometers away, pinpoint the crunch of leaves beneath a squirrel's paw hundreds of meters away, and smell the countless different flowers and trees blooming in the eve of spring, all while the ocean of energy erupting from me painted a blurry image of my surroundings in my mind.
But through that sensory storm.. I was calm.
I was finally back...
Standing there from atop that rock outcrop, I was overwhelmed by the long-forgotten memories of holding my father's hand, gazing at puffy white clouds with my mom, and hearing the chirp of dove in the morning.
In that moment.. it all returned...
-Am I really.. home..?-
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